I haven't started looking for it around here yet. (DH has been working on busting up the basement cement floor--we've got plumbing issues and that's been taking up our time/energy.)

I don't remember ever seeing vermiculite and was just wondering how difficult it will be to find. Both All New Square Foot Gardening and The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible call for it in making garden soil.

Psalm 27:13

I would have lost heart, unless I had believedThat I would see the goodness of the LordIn the land of the living.

I LOVE vermiculite. It adds nutrient and has much less problem 'floating' to the surface of the soil mixture when you water. I don't like perlite for that reason. I don't add much peat here in the arrid West because it dries out the plants too much. Acts as a wick. Vermiculite

I buy it at hardware stores. In huge bags...it's the cheapest way. Now there are many ..um, sizes of particles. The last bag I got was a bit large for the tiny plant starts so I ran some of it thru an old-fashioned meat grinder. [actually, I used child labor and had my nephew do it. Burn out his energy - not much tho, cuz it isn't hard. ]

How small you want your particles is up to you and your purpose. But you can kind feel thru the bag by pinching to see how big it is.

So far, I have not heard that there is any difference from the vermiculite you get from Ed's Nursery and Ace Hardware. One bag might last you a few years but it's cheaper. And I like to keep a couple years ahead in supplies for gardening anyway.

Go to the square foot gardening website - www.squarefootgardening.org .They have a database of where it can be found locally across the county. It is in the Vermiculite section/sub folder. I used it to find a supplier that sold the large bags. The local garden centre only sold the small bags and that would have cost a small fortune.